John Kiriakou speaks during an interview first broadcast on ABC's World News Monday Dec. 10, 2007. (AP Photo/ABC News)

(Newser)
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The federal government charged a former CIA agent today with leaking secrets related to waterboarding, the AP reports. Authorities say John Kiriakou, 47, told a New York Times journalist about a covert agent who had helped interrogate al-Qaeda financier Abu Zubaydah 10 years ago. Asked by FBI agents last week whether he had leaked the names, Kiriakou replied, "Heavens no," according to an affadavit.

Prosecutors linked Kiriakou to the leak after attorneys for suspected terrorists wrote up a legal brief in 2009 that included classified secrets. Investigators figured the attorneys had picked up the details from reporters tipped off by Kiriakou. The feds also accuse Kiriakou of lying about the leak in order to let the CIA publish his book, "The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror." (See how Kiriakou first said waterboarding broke Zubaydah right away—then admitted he really didn't know.)